For my birthday, some of the members of my family and I went out for a small dinner and then to a karaoke bar. It was definitely a good time and hil loved it all.

Ah yes, the trip to the quiejos sounded like a good time. And that dessert looked like something i definitely would have wanted in on. In fact, any good dessert or some food from the home front sounds pretty good right now. The hut we stayed in in miraflor had bunk beds. No water of course because there was no running water in miraflor, along with no electricity.

The temperature was unbileavable hot in the day, and really cold at night. So cold that i actually used a blanket for the first time since arriving. Anyway, looking very forward to leon this weekend. I am thinking that we are going to leave on friday morning, and stay till sunday so it should be a good time.

Wow, give adam my good luck, i remember hearing that he was thinking of doing that, but i didnít know that he actually went through with it.

Much love

Mateo

Copied from the last entry’s comments, which I know not everyone reads:

well, i know matt talked about miraflor a bunch, but i wanted to get MY two cents in too!
it really was the most beautiful place iÂ¥ve ever been, and juan carlos was great. Josh and Rebecca, our fellow travelers and hikers, were the best people we could’ve been with. i don’t know if all of you know this, but i got LOCKED OUT OF MY HOUSE FRIDAY and COULDN’T GET IN IN THE MORNING BEFORE WE LEFT. meaning, none of my stuff. rebecca lent me shoes, matt lent me clothes, and it was fine. minus the fact that i didn’t have my baby, my camera.
as matt and i walked up the road from the bus station and on a path, and through cafe plants and banana trees, and into an opening with this nice little house and kitchen, and to the right the forest,dressed in fog and rows of cafe beans, he said quietly to me ®thanks for making me come®. that was practically the best part.
and after the horseback riding, he said that it was worth it. even though he’s complaining ever since he got off the horse about how sore it is. ®hil, if it still hurts tomorrow iÂ¥m going to… to… gah!® was what he said last.
my favorite part was waking up sunday to find the fog enveloping us all, and to get on the horses and just gallop. rebecca described it as feeling like she was a princess. i felt as if i could leave the world behind. matts horse could tell he was apprehensive — when me and rebecca and josh were galloping as fast as we could, matt was trotting and our wonderful juan carlos was just chilling with him.
the waterfall was beautiful, and i managed to make a fool of myself. be warned: do not jump onto slippery rocks. i won’t do that again. i cut up and bruised my elbow like crazy, and got all my clothing soaked. ®whatever®i thought ®doesn’t matter now!®and took off my shirt and went swimming in pants and a bra.
wonderful.
the pictures are great, and i made matt take lots of flowers, knowing that all of you would like to see those.
much much much love, and especially to cortney for being THE CUTEST girl i know.
i¥ll write you an email later.
love and light (amor y luz), Hilary

Wow, was miraflor spectacular, and i saw the pictures from the website and they do not do the place justice. i got a lot of great ones, but nothing but being there can truly describe how wonderful it was. The day we got there we had breakfast, met a wonderful couple named Josh and Becca and then went for a long walk with them and our guide, Juan Carlos. Juan Carlos might have been one of the best things in the place, although it is hard to say because everything was so damn spectacular. He is 20 and just the nicest guy. We got back to the farm and had lunch. Me and hil stayed in a wonderful little hut and it was just a blast. I took a long nap after lunch, and then got up freezing (a new experience for me in nicaragua). Not only was it freezing, but storming as well. We had dinner and a long discussion with the guests (all 6 not counting us) and then went to bed. The next day we had breakfast – all the meals were great by the way – and then went horseback riding. This being my first time i was a bit apprehensive, but it was one of the most rewarding experience of my life. The views were just wonderful, and we stopped and went swimming in this beautiful place under a waterfall. The trails that we took these horses on were crazy, and i have to admit i was a bit scared as we were galloping down them. Although by the end i was able to gallop without holding on for dear life. Got some good pictures of miraflor and hil took some of me on the horse. Just a great experience in general.

At the moment i don’t exactly know where my family is, as they are not in their house and the door is locked…… the little girl next door just said No esta aqui…. so I’m not exactly sure what I’m going to do. I expect they will be home sometime soon though. Yes, i expect we will pamper ourselves in leon. God that hot shower will feel great. Anyway, much love from here in nica. and i will talk to you later

Much love
Mateo

P.S, not really all that homesick, and the spanish is getting easier, thank god.

Adios

************

Dear Matt & Hil,

I rode a horse once, or should I say I got on the beast and it walked around while I tried to steer it. I pulled the reins, kicked its side and twisted its ears, but he acted as if I wasnít there. When I finally dismounted, it stepped on my foot. Iím glad your horse was better behaved.

Yesterday we, with Mark, Ginger, Adam, Tricia and Dan, drove to the Queijoís in Hubbardston for an all day barbecue. We arrived at 1 PM and sat and ate and drank and talked until 7. It was then that Jan forced us to get off our ìLazy butts,î and onto the pond. They have two kayaks, one canoe, a rowboat (not unlike the one your uncle Peter and I used on Big Cynthiana Road) and a sailboat. We played on the water for another hour and then headed home.

Below are photos of our incredible desserts: a raspberry cheesecake Mark S brought and Janís homemade blueberry crisp. As good as they were, the best dessert was waiting for us at home – your email.

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Feasting on the above

Some might remember the last time I had to replace those supporting deck beams at Applewod. Then, it was with Mark Queijoís help, this time strong-like-bull Chris and I wrestled with the impossibly heavy timbers.

We replaced four, two at ground level and two over our heads for second floor decks. If you watch this movie youíll see me waltz into the frame and lift the beam as if it were a toothpick -camera rolling, adrenaline flowing. But it gets more amusing after that, although itís mostly a view of Chris’s back. Fortunately, my grimacing face is lost in the shadows. It took three stages to get this beam in place, and Iíve combined the movies from my digital camera into one. At the time, Chris called them Death Scene I, II and III, but unfortunately for the blog, there were no deaths.

This is a 3.7mb Quicktime movie which means you need a fast connection and QT installed.

Peter wonders what Matt will do next summer. Travel to Afghanistan? Clear unexploded ordinance from the Waikoloa Maneuver Area on the Big Island?

If Mr. Clean were allowed to age he’d look like Jock. Tall, shaved head with broad shoulders, but a golf pro’s weathered face and legs that bow out – the result of long ago football injuries. At fifty-three, Jock wed Amelia, a native of Chile, and though he knew some Spanish from his own dogged pursuits, it wasn’t until he brought her to his home in Boxborough that he resolved to learn more. “It just wouldn’t be fair to her.” Often when I talk to his wife, Jock translates.

Yesterday it was time to work on his deck, and as I walked past his open slider I heard, “Work, I love work. I can watch it all day long. I think I’ll bring my chair out here so I can watch your skinny ass slaving away.” Yeah, the funny thing was not so much that he noticed my skinny ass, but that he said something about it.

“While you’re watching me work, tell he how you learned to speak Spanish long after your brain had fossilized. My son’s in Nicaragua (I tell everyone about Matt and Hil), and he’s studying Spanish four hours every morning. He, I understand, but you…?”

“I picked up a thirty year old Spanish vocabulary book and I married it. Conjugated the verbs, completed the lessons and so on. But you know what helped me most? I stopped being afraid of making mistakes. They don’t care if you make mistakes, they enjoy it, it shows you are trying.”

I don’t know who the “they” is he was referring to. Maybe all the Spanish speakers in the world, or more likely, Amelia’s friends and family.

“I don’t care how much you study. If you’re not willing to practice it, you won’t be any good. When I made a mistake that I was aware of, or couldn’t think of the right word, I’d say, I’m a little bit embarazado. I made many mistakes, I repeated it often, A little bit embarazado’. Do you know what embarazado means?”

Wanting to impress him with my own grasp of a foreign language, I paused for a moment and replied, “Sure, it means embarrassed.”

“ No, it means pregnant. I kept repeating, ‘ I’m a little bit pregnant.’ “

As planned, we called Matt at 6 Pm to sing Happy Birthday, but no one answered. We checked the country code and dialed again, but no answer. We thought it terribly unlikely that out of a family of ten (eleven with Matthew), that the house would be empty. This time Diane found Egdelina’s original email and compared it to the phone number on her typed piece of paper. It matched, we dialed again, no answer. We were about to give up when the phone rang. It was Matthew calling from his cybercafe, four blocks from his house.

“Matt we tried to call but the phone just rang and rang.”

“I know. I was home, but the phone is in a room and when they are not home they lock the door. I could hear it ring, but I couldn’t answer it. It broke my heart.”

At 5:20 this morning, Matt and Hil boarded a bus that will take them on this road to Miraflor

haha, whatever it was that i had or have, well…. i am taking the helen route of mind over matter. It makes things a bit easier to deal with. Tonight i am not sure when i will be home. but i think your best bet would be to call around… .hmmm good question. I am going out to dinner tonight, so i would suggest that you call at 11 ur time. That two hour difference doesn’t sound like much, but really makes a difference as to when i will be around. Now that i think about it, ur best bet would be to call around six your time. I will try my hardest to be around. Quiero halbar con mateo, if you didn’t know. this will probably be followed by a large amount of confusing fast words and then by them putting down the phone to find me. No esta aqui, means he isn’t here. at which point you could try again later tonight. I would kill for some steak from the 99 at the moment. Although i do enjoy the food here a lot.
Yes we did start work at the school, although i am not exactly sure of the name, but we are translating letters to american sponsors who give money to the school and to the family of the kids. It is not exactly the easiest thing to read spanish written by a seven year old. But it is doable and pretty fun. Anyways, we leave tmorrow at 520 for miraflor. Should be interesting to see if we can get up that early.

Much love as usual
matt

Hil’s email address – sun_moon_and_hilly@hotmail.com
Matt’s – abstudent16@hotmail.com
Matt’s Phone Number – 011-505-713-3274

°Feliz CumpleaÒos, Mateo!

Globos

Que tengas un buen dia!

(In Latin countries, girls get serenaded on their birthday–when is Hil’s?)

Haha, i bet you are loving the emails, keeps you knowing we are alive. I was sick yesterday and for most of the morning, but i seem to be recovering at the moment(knocks on wood). I agree that the trip to managua is a must, as does hilary so i don’t think that is a problem. We are meeting some wonderful people , such as this couple from the states. They are abagados and have been living down here for the last year, working with organizations. Humanitarians they seem, and are awfully helpful. Tomorrow is not only my birthday, but the revolution celebrations. I am thinking it is going to be a very interesting day. As for today, i am sitting in this internet cafe, looking out the window at a portion of the street that has been blocked off. They are playing music and volleyball and other games. I have no idea why or if it is even a celebration. But it is all very interesting to watch. As to where i am sleeping, no it is not a closet, in fact the room is fairly large. As is their house. They own a new izuzu rodeo and a four wheeler, and i wake up one morning and it turns out they also use the kitchen as a garage. As you will see from the pictures. I think today is going to be our first day of volunteer work at the schooll. If i feel well enough to go. Everything is going great, and as for the connection…. i think it may be a DSL type thing, because it goes faster then dial up… but we are in central america and it still isn’t what i would call fast. 21 days left according to hil.. anyway
much love
mateo

At Johnís non surprise birthday party, Flo mentioned how she had been bitterly disappointed at not having a bathtub at Concord Park. But her spirits had brightened, she continued, when one of the residents told her that indeed there was a common tub, but that it was located in the basement. Cheered by the prospect of soaking her aching bones, Flo had sought out Nancy, the executive director, to ask where in the basement the tub was. Nancy replied, ìNot only do we not have a tub, but we donít have a basement.î

Bob Lewis, Johnís father, was at that party and told me later that he enjoyed Floís story so much heís now passed it on to , ìAbout a half dozen people. But gosh,î he continued, ìsome people donít get it. They look at me like they are waiting for the next line.î

I’ve been calling Chris my right hand man, but he amends it to, “My right index finger.”
Here we are hiding from the rain in what nearby condo owners are referring to as our home away from home.

Dan Downing
In case others have started to wonder, as I have…

Closest Linda and I have gotten is Costa Rica’s northwestern border, to see the giant turtles laying their eggs on the deserted, sandy beaches on the Carribean.

And here are pictures of the school Matt and Hil are attending.

Hello parents and friends, since there is a limited amount of time that we are able to use the computers, i think i am just going to write one email to all of you at the moment, sorry. lol. Well, my family is possibly the best thing to happen yet on this trip. There are ten of them living with me in my house. The grandmother, mother, father, three brothers, one brothers wife, two children of the brother, one child of the brother’s wife, and another kid whose mother is living in north carolina with two more brothers. The way we have figured it out, they start popping kids out when they are about twenty, and do so every two years for a very long time. The house is actually very nice, and yes there is a shower. However no hot water, but there isn’t any anywhere in Esteli. Today was the first chance i got to take a shower, and it was not as bad as you would think. Any amount of cleaning is very looked forward to by me. God does my hair feel great today. The father is a pastor, the mother is a teacher, and the oldest brother owns a store with his wife. I’m not really sure about any ages, except that the two youngest brothers are 19 and 21, and both of them are currently attending a university. The four smallest children are wonderful, they are the grandchildren or the great grandchildren, depending on how you look at it. The five year old girl, who up until today would not talk to me, is awesome, and turns out she speaks better English then me. She speaks better spanish than any nicaraguan i have met so far, except for bertha. Yes, we have one teacher per child, and we study for three and a half hours every day. It is pretty intense but we are learning a lot, and are getting pretty good at basic communication. Me and hil visited a very poor school yesterday, It really makes you think. Three hundred and twenty students attend, and there are four classrooms. Me and hilary are going to be doing some volunteer work there, once or twice a week. The camera was such a good idea, and you are going to love the pictures that i bring back. Everyone is welcome to write me by email, or snail mail, depending on what you prefer. I would love to get emails from all of you.

This is such a beautiful country, but it doesn’t keep me from missing all of you.
Have a wonderful day.
Always,
Matt

abstudent16@hotmail.com

Hey,
Well, we have finally found an internet cafe that we can use and understand….. kinda.
We made it safe and sound to Esteli and we happened to meet the president of Nicaragua in the airport and again on the plane. It was a very intresting experience. We made a new friend, her name is Bertha and we met her in the airport. She is Nicaraguan and lives in Managua. She was traveling back from a vacation with her family and they seem very nice, I know that you did not want us traveling to Managua but they have offered to let us stay in their house and show us around. They also have a house in San Juan Del Sur that they might take us too. If we go to Managua we would go on our second or third weekend. Second if it is up to me, third if it is up to Hilary. I love the family I am staying with, it is huge. There are ten of them. 11 including me. They are very nice and both me and Hilary really enjoy talking to them….. if you can call it talking. ClassÂ¥s are going very well, although they are a pain in the ass. Our Spanish is improving rapidly but we still have no idea what we are doing. Esteli is a very nice little city, and aside from the daily harassment Hilary receives, it is going very well. Much much love, and I will talk to you soon. As I said phones are few and far between, but you may be able to call my house. If you want to , you should try to call around 8 or 9 ur time. Hilary would like to say something so…
love matt

HEYA! just to reiterate what Matt said, weÂ¥re doing just dandy. His family is really, really sweet, and one of them speaks pretty good English so it’s a) easy to talk with him and b) we learn a lot because he can say a word in English if we don’t understand it in Spanish.
I’m trying to get Matt to go to MIRAFLOR this weekend, LEON AND MASAYA next weekend, and MANAGUA the third weekend. Bertha and her family are really nice, and they tried to slip us past customs, but the Presidents bodyguards wouldn’t let us cuz we had too many bags. Deeply amusing. and when we were confused in the airport in Managua and couldn’t find our driver (because we are stupid and blind) the President helped us out.
We aren’t getting into trouble, so no worries.
Matt is learning a ridiculous amount of Spanish tambien.
adios, much love, and tell everyone we say hi (you could post this in the blog if you wish)
love and Light, Hilary

Matt and Hil. We got your phone messages yesterday but we’re starved for more information!

I hired one of Matt’s best friends, Chris Grosjean, for the summer. He’s a strapping lad, requires no breaks and very little fuel, complains not at all, and works like mule, which is to say, you have to tell him it’s time to stop otherwise the sun would set, the stars would appear and he’d still be hoisting beams or staining decks.

He did, however, let me in on a secret today. He said the work he does for me gets him out of cutting the grass on weekends. I laughed and told him I saw his dad, John, cutting the grass on Sunday and he replied, “He needs the exercise.” Sharp, smart words from an equally sharp boy. Anyway, we have fun – okay, maybe only I have fun – and I learn tons of interesting things about his life and the lives of his friends.

Such as what is the primary entry door into their houses. Ever had a conversation with anyone about such a thing? Probably not, but here in Acton it’s not as strange as it sounds. Joy Hertz once told me that if someone rings the front door bell she knows it’s a salesman and she doesn’t answer it. Chris listed every friend and the door they used, and not once did he say front door. The closest he came was, “The secondary front door.” I think this topic came up after we had stained someone out of their condo.

Without disclosing anything of a personal nature that might get Chris in trouble, some of the other topics we’ve touched on include: his primary and secondary friends, the parents he used to consider scary, all kinds of baseball related things (readers of the blog and friends of Chris know he is an accomplished athlete with hopes of pitching in the majors), the uptight locals who call the police for the most trivial of transgressions (yes, a reference to Matt, Chris and their friends will appear AGAIN in the local paper under the police blotter), his grades, how much he studies, and of course how brave Matt and Hil are to have traveled to Nicaragua.

Which leads me to the latest news about my son. At 3 PM my cell phone beeped to announce I had missed a call. Instead of the usual display of the time and the calling number, it said — UNKNOWN 12 AM 1/1/00 .
Chris and I were both convinced it was Matt, which made me feel real good. Send my only born off to a foreign land and then make it impossible to get a hold of us. Bad enough that he was back in school, had no access to hot showers or video games, and was surely feeling isolated because of a lack of a common language, but then to be unavailable when he needed me most. Do I sound self-pitying or just pitiful? Chris wondered why Matt didn’t leave his usual message, “Dad, you never answer your cell phone!” However, Chris also assured me that there would be a message on my machine at home, and sure enough there was.

I played it multiple times, happy to hear his deep voice sounding like a self assured twenty-three year old. Here it is, almost verbatim:

“Anybody there, hello. Mother, Father. Well I’m trying to call now and we can’t find phones that work much less get out to America so I don’t know how often I’ll be able to call. Umm we arrived in Esteli safe and sound so everything is all set. We actually made a friend in the airport. Aaah… and we might be staying with them in Managua for a weekend or something. We’ll try to set up an email address so we can send you some email. I’ll try calling back when it’s convenient. Love you guys, bye.” Click!

Diane is out tonight enjoying dinner with her long time social work group, but you know I had to call and relay Matt’s message. I know how much better Diane is going to feel knowing that Matt and Hil met some stranger in Managua, the only town he was warned to stay out of, and that he’s going to be spending his weekends there. What a chip off the old block.

Chris’ only demand, that he be driven from job site to job site in this chair atop my truck.

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Photos from yesterdayís American Repertory Theatre and the Minneapolis based Theatre de la Jeune Luneís presentation of MoliËre’s, The Miser. The best play weíve seen since Amadeus. Sorry Molly. Globe Review